Telepocalypse

Power glitches

The most optimally superior OfcomWatch has a pair of articles on powerline broadband. (You US-based readers really need an FCC watch blog as good as this … over in Britain our telecom industry might be nothing special, and the regulator pretty average, but we’re world-class at analysing and bitching about it.)

It occurs to me that “broadband” over powerline misses the point somewhat. Reach always beats speed in telecom. Any signal is better than no signal. The point about powerline-based IP communications should be pervasiveness, not speed. You could do amazing things with a service of even a few hundred bits per second that was guaranteeably absolutely everywhere in a city. Think of it as being the signal rather than media bearer channel, if you’re inclined that way. Most devices attached to a power socket aren’t Net-enabled today. There’s an order of magnitude more of them than there are PCs. Lower the power, drop the bitrate, and your electromagnetic pollution problem eases up. Solve an unsolved problem, rather than flail at a solved one.